Continuous form sales book or the like



Jan. 25, 1955 v. c. HOLLINGSWORTH 2,700,557

CONTINUOUS FORM SALES BOOK OR THE LIKE Filed NOV. 5, 1951 INVENTOR. C. HOLLINGSWORTH AT TOR/V5) Unitd States Patent CONTINUOUS FORM SALES BOOK OR THE LIKE Vern C. Hollingsworth, Piedmont, Calif. Application November 5, 1951, Serial No. 254,844

2 Claims. (Cl. 282-22) This invention relates to continuous form records and particularly to the type of record that may be used for sales work or other periodic entries where copies of successive entries are preserved on a single sheet of paper.

One familiar type of continuous form record is that employed in mechanical sales registers where sales slip blanks are printed on continuous sheets of paper with a required number of copies interfolded to provide a stack to be received in the register. The register is designed to present a single sales slip with its associated copies and when an order is entered on this slip, a lever is actuated to advance the original and a desired number of copies to be torn off. At the same time, at least one copy is retained in continuous form and is advanced into a receptacle provided for its reception in the case of the register.

The continuous form copy has many advantages among which are that no single order copy may be lost or misplaced during the period between the time the order is written and final accounting figures are taken from it. Furthermore the printing of all copies on a continuous sheet may be efiected at lower cost by well-known manifolding processes. On the other hand the system described requires the use of mechanical sales registers which are costly and cumbersome and are not adapted to certain types of merchandising. For example where large groups of sales persons are employed or where sales persons work in a large area and must return to the location of a sales register each time an order is written up. In such cases the sales book which is easily' carried in the hand or pocket takes preference over the sales register.

It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide a sales book that has the advantages of a sales register in that it provides a copy of all entries on a continuous form. Further and more specific objects and advantages of the invention reside in the particular construction of the sales book and the manner in which the forms are made available for convenient use. These objects and advantages will best be understood by reference to the following specification where the invention is described in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a typical sales book pad constructed in accordance with the present invention illustrating two sets of copies with the thickness of the paper;l exaggerated to illustrate the manner in which it is folde Fig. 2 is a view like Fig. 1 showing the first or top set of copies torn from the pad along their upper edge in preparation to the separation of some copies and the preservation of other copies in continuous form, and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a sales book constructed in accordance with the present invention showing the manner in which a pad, such as shown in Fig. 1, is mounted on a cover or backing member, the manner of preserving the continuous form copies, and also showing one manner of providing sheets of carbon for convenient use.

Fig. 1 of the drawings shows the manner in which two or more continuous sheets of paper are combined and folded to provide a pad which forms a part of the sales book of the present invention. While the number of sheets used will be determined by the number of copies required, the present invention illustrates two sheets as combined to provide for four copies. The two sheets having both been printed on opposite sides to provide the necessary forms are placed one on top of the other and then folded alternately in opposite directions or in a zig-zag fashion to provide a stack of superimposed pads with four separate pages or forms in each pad. Only two such pads are shown in Fig. 1 to illustrate the direction of folding but it is to be understood that any suitable number of pads may be provided in this manner. All of the sheets are perforated or weakened for tearing as along the line indicated at 10 in Fig. 1 adjacent and parallel to what will be referred to as the top edge of the stack. Beyond the perforate line 10, staples such as shown at 11 or other securing means are employed for holding the entire stack against separation.

Fig. 2 shows the manner in which the top pad may be partially separated from the remainder of the stack by tearing along the perforated line 10 and the partially separated sheets are numbered in the order of their orig inal position with the reference characters one to four inclusive. The backs of the first three sheets may have a carbon-like substance provided thereon, such method being known in the manifolding industry as carbonized.

back, or separate carbon sheets may be inserted in proper positions to produce the required number of copies. In either event, the forms are written upon while the sheets occupy the position shown in Fig. l and after all necessary information has been placed thereon and the top pad of four sheets has been separated along the tear line 10 and swung to the position shown in Fig. 2, sheets 1 and 4 may be separated along the line indicated at 12 which may be perforated or otherwise weakened to facilitate separation and they may also be separated along the line 13 to provide an original and one carbon copy on separate sheets. The sheets 2 and 3 are left in their folded position to form a part of a continuous record made up of all of the sheets 2 and 3 from all of the pads.

It is not always desirable to have a duplicate continuous record as will be provided by the sheets 2 and 3, though such a record discourages unauthorized alterations, and it is possible to provide a single continuous record by elimination of one of the carbons as for example that which overlies sheet No. 3.

The manner of providing a convenient sales book for supporting the stack of blanks and for storing the continuous record copy is shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings where the stack is shown as secured to a backing member 15 of cardboard or similar material as by the same staples 11 which hold the stack intact. On one side the backing member 15 is extended to form a cover 16 shown folded back as when the book is open for use. The opposite edge of the cover 15 is extended to provide a back 17 and a folded cover 18 providing space between which the continuous form copy may be stored. If separate carbon sheets are to be employed, they may be attached to the stack as indicated at 19 in Fig. 3 along their top edges and they may be placed in position between the sheets by first separating the top pad as indicated in Fig. 2 and then replacing it one sheet at a time with the carbon paper inserted in its proper positions. On the other hand, if carbonized back is applied to the printed sheets the carbon paper 19 will be omitted and after first separating the top pad as shown in Fig. 2, the cover 16 of the sales book will be swung to its closed position so that it will lie beneath sheet No. 4 when the pad is replaced and act as a stop sheet to prevent the carbon impressions from being carried through to the next pad.

The construction herein illustrated provides a simple inexpensive form of sales book which results in the production of a continuous form copy of all entries made on the original sheets in the book and thus eliminate the possibility of lost copies without the expense and inconvenience of a mechanical sales register.

It is also possible with the construction shown to form the continuous record which is made up of the sheets 2 and 3 on card stock which, after their first use, may be separated and employed in any one of several different card type bookkeeping systems which depend upon perforations or notched edges for mechanical bookkeeping operations. This is impractical with the copies produced on the mechanical sales registers because of the fact that the several copies in a sales register are bent and passed overrollersnn a manner whichwould destroythe flatness-- of the card stock and thus interfere with its subsequent use in'a'card type bookkeepingsystem':

I claim:

1. The combination with a continuous form record which includes 1duplicatescontinuous sheetsasuperirnposedr and-having alternate. opposite'ifolds ato providemza stack.

of units which have folded edges ontwo oppositeasidessi and plain edges on its other two opposite sidesawhereby unitsfrom one sheet maybe separated from thestack and units from the other sheet may be folded into .an ad-M jacent continuous record stack, means securingv together oneof the plain edges of the stack, and a tear line parallel to the Esame-edge of the stack extending throughout the length of the continuous sheets of a backing member of foldable' material underlying the firstn-amed stack held in place by said securing means, said backing member having afirstextension extending from adjacentone of saidfolded edges underlying said adjacent continuous record stack, and a second extension extending from thefirst extension and foldable to a position to cover said adjacent continuous record stack.

2. The combination with a continuous form record which includes duplicate continuous sheets superimposed and having alternate opposite folds to provide a stack of units'which have folded edges on two opposite sides and plainedges on its other two opposite sides whereby units A 4, fromonesheet may be separated'from the stack-and units from the other sheet may be folded into an adjacent continuous-recordstack; means securing together-oneof them plain edges of the stack, and a tear line parallel to the same edge of the stack extending throughout the length of the continuous sheets, of a backing member of foldable material underlying the first named stack held in place by said securing means, said backing member having a first extension extending from adjacent one of said folded edges underlying said adjacent continuous record stack, a secondextension extending from said first extension and fold able to a position to cover said adjacent continuous record stack, and a third extension on the backing "member extending oppositely from the first extension and foldable to a position to cover said first named stack.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

